


Crush

by misura



Category: Bleach
Genre: Community: springkink, F/F, F/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-31
Updated: 2010-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:25:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Love can be like pencils and dead letters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crush

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted February 2008
> 
> prompt: _Bleach, Orihime/Ishida, unrequited - It shouldn't hurt so much; it's just a crush_

Orihime's not entirely sure when she stops seeing Ishida (she calls him 'Uryu' fairly often, and he calls her 'Miss Inoue' on occasion; a balance has been struck, of sorts) as someone who's like Ichigo and therefore should be their friend (hers and Chad's and most of all Ichigo's) and starts seeing him instead as someone who's simply like Ichigo - she used to have a bit of a crush on Ichigo, she knows, but he never noticed and so, like pencils that you put in your bag instead of in your pencilcase, her feelings have slipped a little more out of sight every day, until she's almost forgotten about them, is almost able to pretend they never existed.

It's not love, exactly; it's not rainbows and sunshine and strawberry jelly and holding hands in the park - there's a pain in her chest whenever she sees Ishida, and that's how she knows it's just a crush, not love, and that makes her a little sad; it's as if she's exchanged something big and shiny (and useless) for something small and dull (and still useless, which should make her feel better about all this, perhaps, but it doesn't) and she doesn't even have the first idea where the shop is or if she will ever find it again.

She tries to talk with Tatsuki about it, asking: "Have you ever had a favorite pencil, one that you really liked, that you put in your bag outside of the pencilcase and lost track of that way?" and Tatsuki gives her a look full of love (friendship is just another word for it) and replies: "Oh, 'hime. Is that what's gotten you looking so down all week? Honestly, if you want it back that badly, just hold your bag upside down and wait until it comes falling out with the rest of your stuff."

(Tatsuki has always been brilliant that way - and kind enough to pretend it's about lost pencils, instead of feelings that are like letters that got lost in the mail, without the stamp 'return to sender', doomed to lie around in a corner until they have been well and truly forgotten.)


End file.
